Project Details
Dr. Bruce Lamb's laboratory has already shown that inflammation by a particular immune cell, called microglia, can start and accelerate tangles in cell cultures and in a transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. A protein, called p38 MAPK, is involved with this inflammation and subsequent creation of tangles. Dr. Lamb and collaborators will determine whether a drug, called 069A, will target the p38 MAPK protein and prevent tangles from forming in the brains of mice with a human form of Alzheimer's disease. Collaborators have adapted the 069A drug to enable it to be taken by mouth and get into the brain. If an experimental increase in p38 MAPK causes an increase in tangles and intervention with 069A prevents it, then a future goal would be to test this drug in a human clinical trial for treatment of Alzheimer's disease.